Summary - This is an example of 3 community colleges working together as a confederation and includes such things as joint planning including time tableing; CPD; Workforce Reform; and Curriculum development; it also looks at the benefits and route of transition to an EIP.    

The Colleges

All three community colleges are part of Plymouth LEA and between them serve Plymouth’s most deprived wards.  Two of the colleges John Kitto and Stoke Damerel are designated community colleges and are responsible for adult, youth and community education.  Tamarside is a key member of the Cities Education Action Zone.  All three colleges are members of the Leadership Incentive Grant Partnership alongside 5 other schools.  John Kitto is a Business and Enterprise Specialist College, Stoke Damerel is a Mathematics and Computing Specialist College and Tamarside is a Technology Specialist College.

History

The Confederation between the 3 colleges has existed for over 15 years.  Originally, it was set up to allow the 3 newly formed Comprehensive Schools to work together to offer a wide range of post sixteen educational opportunities.  The aim was to allow students the choice of remaining in their home college as a sixth form student but still have access to as wide a range of courses, both vocational and academic, as possible.  The Governors and Principals of the three colleges in those early years believed that students, many of whom live in the cities poorest areas, needed the stability, guidance and support of the college communities who knew them well.  This remains the case today.

The Confederation is long standing and withstood changes to the Governing bodies and of the Principals of all three colleges.  It is successful in that students and their families value the Confederation allowing the 3 colleges to recruit and retain students into Post 16 education.

Established ways of working

Governors

All the Governing bodies receive regular and detailed reports about the work of the Confederation.  All three colleges involve not only the full governing body but also the Curriculum and Finance Committees who undertake more detailed work relating to their respective areas.

Governing bodies have also met together to discuss major changes affecting the Confederation e.g.  Changes to the LSC funding arrangements and their impact on our students.

“Curriculum 2000” changes and the impact on student learning
Shared preparation for Ofsted

Leadership teams

The Principals and Vice Principals meet two or three times per term with a pre-set agenda to agree the strategic direction of the Confederation.  The Heads of the Sixth Form and Vice Principals meet monthly to implement the plans of the Confederation and ensure it runs smoothly.

The Confederation has an elected Chair who ensures that the meetings happen and actions are implemented.

Curriculum Teams

Curriculum Leaders also meet, deciding which syllabus students will follow, who takes on which aspects and sharing teaching and learning developments within their own departments.  In addition we hold Confederation Conferences that bring staff together, to share the success and plan for the future.

Timetabling is undertaken jointly and planning for this crucial element takes place early in the academic year.  This careful and detailed work allows the Confederation to function and students to have access to a wide range of courses.  Many years of careful work have resulted in the staff of the colleges understanding the need for “give and take” in relation to their subjects.  The Confederation has its own transport and moves students between the three sites for their courses.

The establishment of these working practices have been subjected to very real tests namely, changes to the funding of Post 16 by the LSC, major funding shortfalls in 2 of the colleges, changes in personnel and Ofsted Inspections.  The Confederation has withstood the challenges and become stronger.  An example would be the implementation of the “Education Maintenance Allowance”.  The Confederation worked together on an implementation plan playing to the different strengths of each college so that a system is in place and effective.  Retention rates with the confederation are rising and currently average 97%.

Joint Planning

Timetabling is not the only area of detailed planning that the confederation undertakes.  We jointly plan the academic years in advance, getting as much agreement as possible in when training days take place, review days, alternative curriculum days, occasional days.  Between the three of us we do have a co-ordinated year thus making it easier for the families and communities we serve.

Following advice from HMI during a visit in the 2003/04 academic year, we are now looking at how we can publicise the achievements of students within the Confederation across all the learning areas.

All three colleges have during the last two years changed the times of their colleges days.  All three have shared that planning within the confederation and made changes to original plans after consultation so that the work of the confederation remained.

Continued Professional Development

Over the last three years, we have really begun to make real inroads into enhancing and extending a range of opportunities for continued professional development.  We allocated a significant part of the LIG collaborative budget for this.  This has been very successful.  We have been able to offer high quality, middle leadership development courses, careful career reviews and identification of needs, sharing of expertise across colleges and subjects.  Teaching staff in all the colleges have valued these opportunities and given their time in the evenings and weekends to undertake them.  These have been run by the 3 College Professional Development Tutors.

We also worked bringing all the NQT’s within the Confederation together for joint work during the year, particularly in the area of behaviour management.

We are continuing with the above and this year have brought together members of the non teaching technical staff to identify and meet some of their training needs.

Work force reform

We are sharing our experiences and ways of tackling this agenda.  One of the very good ideas has come from Stoke Damerel and relates to cover supervisors.  They have been the pilot and with the other two colleges are sharing their experiences and leading the training of cover supervisors across the confederation. We have made joint appointments for shared teaching in minority subjects such as Psychology, and Law.

Curriculum Development – 14 to 19

The different specialisms of the three colleges have led to exciting curriculum opportunities at KS4, as you would expect.  The focus of our discussions has been to look at the impact of these curriculum changes at KS4 and to plan for progression routes into KS5.  Identify those subjects areas that may come under pressure because of growth and conversely those areas who may not attract students because of the changes.  We are tackling difficult issues of retraining staff and utilising expertise within the colleges to offer progression routes at KS5. Key examples would be:

1.   The growth of BTECc Sport and Leisure level 2 at KS4 and the needs to work closely with the YMCA to offer level 3 to even larger numbers at KS5.

2.   The development of different courses in ICT e.g. John Kitto piloting “DIDA” at KS4 and therefore the need for two different course to be available at KS5.

3.   The growth in Health and Social Care level 2 at KS4 and rising numbers at KS5, particularly level 3.

4.   The sustainability of Modern Foreign Languages in the curriculum at KS5.

The above are just a few of discussion areas that we are finding practical answers to currently.

In addition, all three colleges are developing vocational and skills for life course for those students for who an academic route leads to disengagement, disaffection.  Next year we are extending our current courses with even more practical and vocational opportunities with the help of our business partners and training providers.

Example: Tamarside are converting part of a building into a workshop capable of delivering Construction Courses.  John Kitto will use this facility at different times.  John Kitto is converting a space into a facility capable of delivering Hair and Beauty Training.  Tamarside students will access this facility.  Stoke Damerel intend to develop Hospitality and Catering facilities.  Our research has shown that these are areas students want to be involved in and that there is a shortage of training places in the city.

Trial Placements

All three colleges work together offering trial placements for students who have experienced behavioural difficulties and need  a second chance to avoid exclusion.

Tamarside because of it membership in the Action Zone is just receiving money for the Behaviour Improvement Programme.  John Kitto and Stoke Damerel are not allowed to access that.  The Confederation would like to plan for and deliver a collaborative programme to support those youngster with real behavioural problems working with the other agencies.  We do not currently have the funding that would allow this kind of development.

Planned future work

School Self Evaluation

All three colleges have been sharing their own developments within this area. In June, CONCENTRA are talking to Governors and staff from all the colleges about their work in this area and the consultancy and system they offer.  This we hope will lead to the three colleges being able to work in partnership with CONCENTRA  developing a structure for the Confederation.

Governments Five Year Plan

The Confederation is very interested in aspects of the plan. Proposals relating to reforming the route to Foundation status is making staff and governors think.  Already, Governors of the Colleges have been involved together in talking to existing foundation school governors about the potential benefits.  Governors of the three colleges do want to work together to find out more about  Foundation status, its benefits and the Governments intentions.

An Education Improvement Partnership and the Confederation

The opportunities the EIP proposed by the Government offers to the Confederation are obvious.  We are long established and developing rapidly beyond the Post 16 brief.  We not only have a common aim but have developed the ethos and structures that have allowed us to work to implement major curriculum change, professional development, raising levels of achievement, raising retention levels and raising aspirations among the families and youngsters we serve.

We need to be able to take the next step, to be able to work in a co-ordinated way with other services that impact on our students lives.  We believe that we have a proven infrastructure that could support that.  We would be particularly keen to develop specialist support for those youngsters with very real behaviour difficulties.

The natural progression for the Confederation and one that would help our development would be to work with the Government on EIP.  We believe that we need to engage the Learning and Skills Council into this partnership as well as OFSTED and any School Improvement Partner. As HMI rightly pointed out to us, we need to find ways of evaluating the outcomes of the work of the Confederation and how judgements are made.  This would be really interesting and the work with CONCENTRA might well assist in those developments.

We hope that you will look at our developments and proposals positively and we welcome the opportunity to work with you.

Jean Gledhill
Principal John Kitto Community College
01752 705131

Carol Hannaford
Principal Stoke Damerel Community College
01752 556065

Keith Ballance
Tamarside Community College
01752 213939